Shepherd does not recommend starting in agroforestry the way he did. The initial planting at his farm involved over 12,000 nuts which came from grafted trees. The flags to plant those 12,000 nuts took 10 days to set up. The nuts were planted over a period of several weeks. But the worst was yet to come. Because the trees were all the same age, grafting was quite a challenge since they all had to be done at approximately the same time. While he has one of the few fully-grafted pecan orchards in the state, he suggests 25 acres at a time is a much more manageable size.
One of the more unique stories about the agroforestry system at Shepherd's farm is the history of the Shepherd variety pecan which makes up 10 percent of his trees. They bought a tree that was a known producer of excellent pecans. A deed was drawn up and registered at the county courthouse. The tree stayed where it was but it is owned and used by the Shepherds to supply scionwood for grafting the Shepherd variety pecan.
During the early years, Dan's agroforestry system supplied income through the row crops while he waited for the pecans to bear nuts. The trees are producing now and he anticipates he will have a full crop within the next two years. In anticipation of this harvest, he has switched his alleyways to bluegrass. He will harvest it and use it to feed the buffalo he raises on his farm. He chose bluegrass because it is shallow rooted and goes dormant when it gets dry rather than competing for moisture with the trees. Further, it does well on bottom lands and is much easier for harvesting pecans because it produces a solid sod, unlike orchardgrass or fescue which is bunchy and can trap the pecans.